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Helping Business Market SmarterFri, 18 May 2018 12:38:56 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.57 Steps for GDPR Compliancehttps://tribalvision.com/7-steps-for-gdpr-compliance/
https://tribalvision.com/7-steps-for-gdpr-compliance/#respondFri, 11 May 2018 19:53:15 +0000https://tribalvision.com/?p=8152General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is a new law going into effect on May 25th that aims to protect the privacy of EU citizens in an increasingly ...

]]>General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is a new law going into effect on May 25th that aims to protect the privacy of EU citizens in an increasingly data-driven world. It will replace the EU’s outdated data protection laws, which were last updated in 1995, when the internet was still a recent invention. The 1995 law didn’t account for technologies that have developed over the last 25 years, including cookieless tracking, big data, and mobile device tracking. Data privacy and protection have risen in public consciousness in recent years thanks to large data breaches tied to companies like Equifax, Target, and JP Morgan Chase, as well as to questionable use of private data illustrated in examples like the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal. These infractions underline the need to update legislation surrounding companies’ storage and use of personal data.

Personal data includes any information relating to a person that can be used to identify an individual. This can include name, identification number, IP address, physical address, email address, or any other identifier linked to more qualitative attributes of an individual such as physical, economic, social, or genetic identifiers.

GDPR has repercussions for businesses outside of the EU that store personal data of EU residents or who have company websites that EU residents could potentially visit. Failure to comply with GDPR could result in fines of up to €20 million or 4% of gross total revenue, whichever is greater.

This article includes 7 actions that we recommend all our clients take before GDPR goes into effect. If your company is storing personal data of EU or UK citizens or is considering doing so in the future, complete the following steps by May 25th to ensure that your company is compliant with the new law.

Step 1: Conduct an Inventory of Your Company’s Data Processing of Contacts in the EU and UK

Have they provided consent to have their data stored by your company? If not, you’ll need a communication plan to request consent from these contacts.

If you do not work with contacts in the EU or UK and do not foresee doing so in the future, GDPR compliance is not something you need to worry about presently. However, there are benefits to complying with GDPR even if you do not store data of EU contacts. Given consumers’ heightened anxiety about how companies use their personal data, U.S. companies that adopt GDPR-compliant practices they’re not required to by law arguably can gain a competitive advantage by positioning themselves as companies who a) are transparent about their use of customers’ personal data and b) adhere to a standard of data use not yet adopted broadly in the U.S.

Fully understanding the contents of your company’s data inventory ensures you aren’t overlooking any that could put you at risk for fines.

Step 2: Organize Your Data

If your company is ever investigated by GDPR regulators, you will need to demonstrate understanding of exactly what personal data your company stores.

Create a process that allows you to easily supply an individual’s personal data if he or she asks for it. If a contact requests all personal data you have stored on them, you need to be able to retrieve it easily.

Get rid of any personal data you’re storing unnecessarily.

Step 3: Update Your Privacy Policy

Your privacy policy should explain clearly (no legalese) what data you’re storing from your contacts, how and why you’re collecting it, and how you’ll be using it.

If you have questions on how to make your privacy policy GDPR-compliant, contact a lawyer and ensure he or she deems your updated privacy policy up to par.

Step 4: Put a Process in Place So If Someone Asks You to Delete Their Data, You Can

Data may be stored in hard copies, in your email contacts, and other places in addition to a centralized CRM. Having a process in place ensures that you wipe data from all possible storage sources.

If you receive a request to delete an individual’s data, you have 30 days to respond to the request and confirm that his or her data has been erased. This includes confirming that any third parties your company has shared the data with (e.g. Facebook for advertising) have also erased the data from their environments.

Step 5: Create “Clear Affirmative Actions,” or Opt-Ins, Communicating Use of Cookies, Email Marketing, and Any Other Marketing Activities

Allow all users to take a “clear affirmative action” to consent to having their data used for marketing purposes. There are three areas we’re recommending our clients update with affirmative actions:

Website Cookies: If your website uses tags or codes (cookies) from third-party advertising services like Google to measure advertising results or remarket to visitors to your website, your website must now have a consent message on it that discloses what data is being collected and for what purpose, such as the example below.

Even if you do not do business in the EU or UK, residents of those geographies may find their way to your website, so your company must have compliant consent measures.

Email Marketing: If you send email campaigns of any kind to your contact database, we strongly encourage sending an email to all EU and UK contacts in your database about the changes your company has made to align with GDPR. This email should include a Call to Action (CTA) where recipients can reaffirm their consent to receiving email communications from your company.

The below example from Slack includes links to the company’s updated privacy policy and user terms, as well as an easy-to-follow bulleted summary of the changes. This makes it very easy for recipients to understand the updates without having to scroll through an intentionally complex, technical policy.

Website Form Submissions: GDPR explicitly prohibits the use of pre-checked consent or permission requests. Users must actively opt in to provide consent by taking an action such as checking a box (in the below example), clicking a call-to-action button, or replying to an email to confirm that they’ve opted in. The below example cited by Econsultancy in a recent blog post shows what an active opt-in looks like and does a great job articulating what type of information a user would receive if they opt in to receiving future communications from Walmart Canada.

This form also includes a link to Walmart’s privacy policy, making it easily accessible to anyone creating an account on its website.

Step 6: Verify That Third Parties Your Company Partners With Are GDPR Compliant

This includes companies that provide commercial data or insights to your business such as a company you’d purchase a mailing list from or a marketing firm like TribalVision. Under GDPR, the data processes the third party uses must be compliant with the law.

Step 7: Create and Deliver A Communication Plan to Your Employees Regarding the New Processes You Put In Place to Comply With GDPR

To ensure compliance, data protection should be the entire team’s responsibility.

Your plan should include details like:

How personal data should be stored moving forward

Process for sending all personal data to an individual if requested

Process for deleting all personal data of an individual if requested

Process for ensuring that any third-party partners the company works with are GDPR compliant

Financial consequences of not complying with GDPR

Process to follow if a data breach occurs

One additional recommendation as a result of updates Google Analytics is making to comply with GDPR: review the data retention settings in your Analytics account and modify the retention period so that your user and event data does not automatically expire. Beginning May 25th, Analytics will automatically delete this data if it’s older than the default retention period.

The below screenshots show the steps to take from your Analytics homepage to modify the retention period to “Do not automatically expire.”

]]>https://tribalvision.com/7-steps-for-gdpr-compliance/feed/0Snapchat As A Marketing Tool: How To Grow Your Business Followinghttps://tribalvision.com/snapchat-as-a-marketing-tool-how-to-grow-your-business-following/
https://tribalvision.com/snapchat-as-a-marketing-tool-how-to-grow-your-business-following/#respondMon, 07 May 2018 14:04:18 +0000https://tribalvision.com/?p=8088What is Snapchat? Snapchat is both a messaging platform and a social network. It’s a great way to stay connected with both friends and family by sharing pictures ...

Snapchat is both a messaging platform and a social network. It’s a great way to stay connected with both friends and family by sharing pictures and short videos of activities that happen in our everyday lives. With over 200 million users, the most active users are teenagers and young adults (83% of its users to be exact are younger than 35).

There are several attractive benefits to marketing on Snapchat:

There is significantly less competition.

There’s no algorithm hiding your posts.

If a user adds your business as a friend, they can easily see when you’ve added a story and view it.

How to Grow Your Snapchat Following

Be consistent with your handle

Having the same handle on all social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) is important for Snapchat, so there’s a better chance that your fans will have an easy time finding and following you.

Use your Snapcode

Snapcodes are the easiest way for people to add your Snapchat; users can scan the code with their phone and you’ll be added instantly.

Tip: You want an image of your Snapcode in as many places as possible to help grow your following.

Alert your email subscribers

Place your Snapcode in your next email/newsletter or add the Snapchat logo next to your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube icons to let your customers know that you’re on the platform.

Add Snapchat to your website

Since your website is where you’re driving your customers, add your Snapcode somewhere on your site where visitors can easily see it.

You can also include the Snapchat logo next to the traditional “Like us on Facebook” and “Follow us on Twitter” links. Link the Snapchat logo to your personalized URL – i.e. http://www.snapchat.com/add/yourusername

Put your Snapcode on a storefront decal

If your business has a brick-and-mortar storefront, print out your Snapcode and post it around the location.

Put your Snapcode on your business cards or other printed materials

Run targeted facebook ads

You can run an optimized ad promoting your Snapchat account that targets users who like Snapchat on Facebook, in a certain target area, within a certain age, etc.

Make sure that the ad is optimized for engagement so that Facebook serves the ad to as many people as possible to drive clicks, likes, and comments.

]]>https://tribalvision.com/snapchat-as-a-marketing-tool-how-to-grow-your-business-following/feed/0Should Your B2C Company Be Using Affiliate Marketing?https://tribalvision.com/should-your-b2c-company-be-using-affiliate-marketing/
https://tribalvision.com/should-your-b2c-company-be-using-affiliate-marketing/#respondTue, 24 Apr 2018 23:57:47 +0000http://new.tribalvision.com/?p=7851Is Affiliate Marketing Right for Your B2C Company? If you have an e-Commerce website in 2018, you should consider using affiliate marketing to promote your products online. That ...

If you have an e-Commerce website in 2018, you should consider using affiliate marketing to promote your products online. That said, this article will help determine whether you have the time and resources to make an affiliate program successful and worthwhile.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the process by which you (the merchant) get partners (the affiliates) to promote your products online. Unlike paying for clicks on your ads (CPC) or paying for eyeballs on your ads (CPM), you’re only paying partners a small commission for actual sales on your website.

Sound familiar? It should – The concept began with offline referral programs by which you (the merchant) would get a partner (the referral source) to refer your product or service for a small commission. Affiliate marketing just takes this referral program concept to the 21st century.

Who are these affiliate partners, and where can I find them?

If this sounds good to you, you’re probably wondering how you can start finding affiliate partners right away. The good news is that there are plenty of affiliates out there – the key is finding partners that are right for both your brand and your goals. To simplify, affiliate partners fall primarily within 4 key categories:

Content partners (also known as influencers): Loyal followers trust these partners, also known as “taste-makers,” for their recommendations and style. Content partners make good affiliate partners if you want to build your brand; however, the sales impact will depend heavily on the popularity of your influencer and placement of your product.

Price comparison sites: Shoppers use these partners to compare prices across the internet. Price comparison sites make good affiliate partners if you have best-of-web pricing or are promoting sale items.

Coupon sites: Shoppers use these partners to find deals online. Coupon sites make good affiliate partners if you want to drive sales for a concentrated period of time, can afford to provide a coupon, and prefer not to lower prices directly on your e-Commerce website.

Incentivisation sites: Shoppers use these sites to get cash back, or other incentives, while shopping online. Incentivisation sites make good affiliate partners if you are looking for smart, thrifty shoppers buying in bulk. Pro tip: these sites are known in the industry to provide the highest average order value (AOV).

How do I recruit affiliates to work with me?

Many large companies have full-time employees, or even entire departments, dedicated to recruiting, engaging, monitoring, and compensating affiliate partners. But not to worry – here are three ways to begin an affiliate marketing program of your own, depending on your time and resources.

Start your own program: With this option, the key to success is a system to reliably generate and track affiliate links and attributable sales (e.g. the WordPress Plugin AffiliateWP). By using this option, you’ll need to recruit and manage your own affiliate partners. You need to be scrappy enough to teach yourself the ropes and plan to dedicate 30+ hours per week. The cost for the Professional Plan is as low as $249 per year, in addition to commissions.

Leverage an affiliate platform: Leveraging an affiliate platform (e.g. SharASale), you’ll be able to benefit from extensive affiliate partner networks. Affiliate partners may reach out to you, or you may have the option to send recruiting messages or find your own partners online. Plan to dedicate 20+ hours per week, but know that you’ll have support available to help you get started. The cost for SharASale is as low as $550 to implement, with a $25 monthly minimum for commissions.

Leverage managed services: Leveraging managed services (e.g. CJ Affiliate), you’ll be able to have the experts run your program. Not only will your account team handle your strategy, recruiting, and management, you’ll also benefit from competitor insights. You’ll still need to dedicate 10+ hours per week, but it’s by far the least time-intensive option. The cost for CJ Affiliate managed services will run you about 3K for setup, and an additional 3K per month, in addition to at least $500 monthly for commissions.

Is affiliate marketing worth the time and resources?

The results don’t lie. According to top affiliate aggregators providing managed services, mature affiliate marketing programs boast 20-25% of annual e-Commerce revenue, and well-run new programs increase annual e-Commerce revenue up to 10% in their first year.

Determining whether affiliate marketing is right for your B2C company ultimately depends on whether or not you have the time and resources to invest in making it successful. Like so many things in life, you get out what you put in.

]]>https://tribalvision.com/should-your-b2c-company-be-using-affiliate-marketing/feed/0The General Data Protection Regulation – What You Need to Knowhttps://tribalvision.com/gdpr-what-you-need-to-know/
https://tribalvision.com/gdpr-what-you-need-to-know/#respondMon, 09 Apr 2018 23:57:09 +0000http://new.tribalvision.com/?p=7849What is it? The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new set of laws intended to protect the personal data of citizens residing in the European Union, ...

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new set of laws intended to protect the personal data of citizens residing in the European Union, which goes into effect on May 25, 2018.

Below is a summary of select aspects of the law. Consult a lawyer and the EUGDPR website for more detailed information on the law’s requirements.

Companies can only collect and use personal data for specific, stated purposes which an individual can opt-in to.

For example, if your website contact form contains fields for email and mailing addresses, you must seek explicit, separate opt-ins for both email marketing and direct mail marketing.

Companies should only request and collect information that is necessary for a specific purpose. Don’t request mailing address if you don’t plan on mailing anything.

Blanket opt-in language or opt-in language that is overly technical is not compliant.

It must be as easy to revoke consent as it is to opt-in. Upon request, personal data must be deleted.

Personal data can only be stored for as long as necessary to serve its stated purpose.

How does it affect my business?

You may be wondering why an EU regulation is important to your business. These laws apply to the personal data of anyone living in the EU, regardless of the company’s location. That means if you have any customers or contacts who may live in the EU, these laws likely apply to you.

Fines for violations of these laws can be as high as 4% of annual global turnover or €20 million, whichever is higher.

What should I do?

These laws going into effect in less than two months – if you haven’t already begun working towards compliance, now is the time to get started. Below are a few steps you can take:

Consult a lawyer or technical expert to help you fully understand the law as it applies to your business.

Work with your team to modify your processes to ensure compliance. Be sure to include all parties who deal with personal data including marketing, HR, and sales.

Update your terms and conditions and opt-in forms as appropriate.

Confirm that any third party vendors or consultants that you work with are in compliance.

]]>In 2018 it’s impossible to ignore Amazon. According to One Click Retail, an e-commerce analytics provider, in 2017 Amazon generated 44% of online sales in the U.S., representing 4% of the country’s total retail sales figure. Larger than Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Sears, Target, Kohl’s, JC Penny, and Best Buy combined, Amazon is by far the most valuable retailer in the U.S. It’s estimated that 1 in 4 US adults subscribes to Amazon Prime and even five years ago (the last year data was publicly available) Amazon was shipping an estimated 1.6 million packages a day.

If you are just getting started on Amazon, publishing your product listings is no small task. Amazon is a highly competitive environment, so in order to generate sales, you have to put in the work to fully optimize your listings. Use the following guidelines to optimize each and every component of your listings to drive as much traffic as possible to your product detail page. Once you attract the traffic, you can expect fairly high conversion rates–15% is widely considered a good conversion rate and that’s about 3-5 times greater than other e-commerce websites.

Keywords

Unlike other search engines, on Amazon your products can only be found through the search function if they contain all the search terms the user entered in the search bar. This means that planning your keywords before building the rest of your listing is very important.

You can use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to help generate a list of keywords that are related to your product, but there are several other tools, including a few that specialize in Amazon.

Title

Your product title is one of the most important components of your listing since it is what users will see in the search results before selecting products to view. You should aim to clearly describe your product while utilizing a few of your most important keywords. You don’t want to stuff so many keywords into your title that it no longer makes sense. As a rule, your product title should include your brand name, the name of the specific product, and any distinguishing features (such as color or use) at minimum.

Amazon provides a few pointers for optimizing your product title:

Capitalize the first letter of every word

Spell out measurements

Numbers should be written in numerals (8 rather than eight)

Spell out the word “and”

Size should not be included unless it’s a relevant detail

Do not list the color of the product if it only comes in one color

Images

If there’s one thing you do to optimize your Amazon page, it should be adding high-quality images. Images are the most important factor when driving conversions because they will be the first thing to capture a prospective customer’s interest and convince them to keep reading about your product. There are several best practices to follow when taking and selecting images for your Amazon page:

Invest in high-resolution, professional photography

Images must be at least 1000 pixels by 1000 pixels to be zoomed in on, this is an important feature to take advantage of

Your main image must include only the product that you are selling, on a white background

Show products from different angles and distances (side, back, top, close up)

One image should show your product packaging

At least one image should show your product in use

At least one image should use graphics and text to explain product features, guarantees, sizes, etc.

Use the maximum number of images available (5-9 depending on the product category)

Test the order of your images to see which leads to the highest conversion rates

Bullet Points

On your product details page, you can include up to five bullet points that describe the major features and benefits of your product. The bullet points appear at the top of the page, directly below the product title and next to the product images.

The first three bullet points should describe your product’s most important features. The last two bullet points should address common questions you receive about your product and ideally list what is included in the package.

Each of your five bullet points can consist of multiple sentences, however Amazon recommends keeping your bullet points concise. If you do write longer bullet points, you can use all caps for the beginning of your bullets to emphasize key points. For example:

100% 90 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE If you are not satisfied for any reason, simply return your foot hammock for a full refund, no questions asked. You have nothing to lose.

As you begin to receive customer reviews and feedback on you Amazon listing, you should revise your bullets as needed to address any common questions and misconceptions about your product.

Product Description

On Amazon, the product description is buried pretty far down on the page. It’s often overlooked, but in the product description you have a lot more room to elaborate on the product features and benefits you covered in the bullet points. There are a few basic pointers to follow when writing your product description:

Start with how the product addresses the consumer’s pain points before laying out the product-specific details, try to use a storytelling approach

Keep sentences short (15-25 words) and relatable

Make sure you sprinkle your keywords throughout, but make sure all your sentences still make sense

Utilize simple HTML formatting to help break up the text and make it easy to skim (bold, italics, quotes, line breaks, page breaks, lists)

Enhanced Brand Content

Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) is a relatively new feature for sellers who have signed up for Amazon’s Brand Registry – a tool for protecting your registered trademarks and establishing credibility and trust with customers. As a registered seller you can use EBC to add premium content with more of your own branding and images so that your Amazon product page looks more like your own website or landing pages. EBC can help increase your conversion rates by giving your prospective customers a more meaningful touchpoint with your brand and a better understanding of your products.

There are several restrictions for what you can do with EBC, for example it can only be placed towards the bottom of the page, below your product description, and it must be approved by Amazon. Amazon generally rejects EBC containing:

Reviews & Ratings

Reviews and ratings are a very important consideration as you try to improve your conversion rate because they factor into Amazon’s search ranking algorithm and they help build trust and confidence in your product through social proof. However, there is little you can do to influence your reviews and ratings other than investing in quality control and providing good customer service. If your product is struggling with a low rating (1-3 stars), you can use the reviews you receive on Amazon to help identify any patterns or issues that can be addressed.

Test, Test, Test

After you’ve made it over the initial hurdle of publishing your product pages, you should continually tweak, test, and optimize to continuously make small gains in your conversion rates. Track page views, purchases, and revenue on a weekly basis and make one change at a time so you can isolate the variables you are testing. You can supplement your testing with free tools from JungleScout and Splitly that are designed to grade your account and identify areas of improvement.

]]>https://tribalvision.com/amazon-product-listing-optimization-101/feed/0Website Retargeting: What It Is, How It Works, and Why You Need Ithttps://tribalvision.com/website-retargeting-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-why-you-need-it-2/
https://tribalvision.com/website-retargeting-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-why-you-need-it-2/#respondTue, 27 Mar 2018 11:59:33 +0000http://tribalvision.createdby.pro/?p=7502Website Retargeting is technology that works to identify individual web users so that you can repeatedly show them your content when they later browse the web. These individuals ...

]]>Website Retargeting is technology that works to identify individual web users so that you can repeatedly show them your content when they later browse the web. These individuals are key prospects for your company because they have already demonstrated interest in your product/brand by visiting your website the first time. More than any other online technique, retargeting respects the natural duration of the conversion from initial awareness to final sale. Standard customers, on average, require seven points of exposure to ignite their interest. Note that since this number is merely an average, it is wise to check data in Google Analytics as to the average number of touchpoints for your consumers specifically and adjust your strategy accordingly.

If that wasn’t convincing enough, retargeted prospects are 75% more likely to buy than those who visit your website once and then leave, making website retargeting a tool that every organization should be utilizing.

How Basic Retargeting Works

Step 1: Prospects visit your website

Step 2: Prospects receive a retargeting cookie

Step 3: Your retargeting ads follow the prospect around the website

Step 4: Prospects see your ads and are influenced to click again or search for your site organically

Choosing A Retargeting Platform

There are two ways that you can implement website retargeting:

Third Party Platform

There are a lot of third-party platforms that you can purchase the capability to perform website retargeting through, such as AdRoll, Criteo, and Retargeter.

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all offer the capability to place a pixel on your website to capture prospect visitors. Doing it through one of these ad vendors will allow you to retarget your website visitors on these platforms, specifically when they use their social media accounts.

Phase II: Audience Segmentation

After you have run your retargeting campaign for a little while, you can build out your strategy even further to segment your audience based on their interests. Based on the behavior of the website visitor, you can decide which specific ads, and therefore ad content, you want to been shown to the prospect again.

]]>https://tribalvision.com/website-retargeting-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-why-you-need-it-2/feed/0Growing by Acquisition? Be Prepared to Answer These Employee Questionshttps://tribalvision.com/growing-by-acquisition-be-prepared-to-answer-these-employee-questions/
https://tribalvision.com/growing-by-acquisition-be-prepared-to-answer-these-employee-questions/#respondMon, 19 Mar 2018 11:58:32 +0000http://tribalvision.createdby.pro/?p=7500Regardless of which side of an acquisition your company is on, employees will have several questions. The below list should serve as a starting point and guide, but ...

]]>Regardless of which side of an acquisition your company is on, employees will have several questions. The below list should serve as a starting point and guide, but it’s not enough to simply consider what employees may ask.

Prior to discussing the acquisition with employees, key stakeholders from both businesses should be in agreement on answers so that you’re representing a unified force. While most questions apply to both sides of the acquisition, answers may vary (e.g. regarding key reasons for the decision).

What are the key reasons for this decision?

How long has this been in the works?

When is the acquisition official?

Why did you choose <other company name>?

Is my job secure?

Is anyone leaving?

Will my compensation change?

Will my benefits change?

How will I benefit?

Are we moving locations?

Will my office/desk move?

How will our <customers/clients/vendors> be impacted? Who is responsible for telling them? How and when will this be done?

How will the responsibilities and expectations for my role change?

How will we maintain our standards of <core company standards>?

Will processes change? If so, what and how?

Will I need to work with new technology? If so, what’s the process and timeline for onboarding?

How will our teams be integrated?

Who will I report to?

Will I experience increased oversight?

Stay ahead of internal chatter by scheduling a company-wide meeting to make the announcement and encourage live Q&A. Depending on the size and structure of your organization, you may want to inform select individuals immediately before the team meeting. This way, they won’t feel blindsided, can help mitigate questions and concerns, and can advocate for the transition.

Preparation is key. Your readiness and ability to answer questions will directly impact employee confidence and could even prompt them to look elsewhere for employment if they sense uncertainty.

]]>https://tribalvision.com/growing-by-acquisition-be-prepared-to-answer-these-employee-questions/feed/0Giving Credit Where Credit’s Due: Attribution Models in AdWordshttps://tribalvision.com/giving-credit-credits-due-attribution-models-adwords/
https://tribalvision.com/giving-credit-credits-due-attribution-models-adwords/#respondMon, 12 Mar 2018 11:57:26 +0000http://tribalvision.createdby.pro/?p=7498If you’re like most of the companies TribalVision works with, many of your clients’ purchasing decisions aren’t made after just one interaction with your brand. Instead, it takes ...

]]>If you’re like most of the companies TribalVision works with, many of your clients’ purchasing decisions aren’t made after just one interaction with your brand. Instead, it takes a period of time of intentional nurturing and repeated touchpoints before someone is ready to make a purchase or reach out for a conversation with your sales team. But does the data from your AdWords account “account” for this reality? If you’re using the “last click” model for your conversation attribution, you may not be getting the full story of how the ads in your campaigns are impacting the sales funnel.

Last click: Gives all credit for the conversion to the last-clicked ad and corresponding keyword.

First click: Gives all credit for the conversion to the first-clicked ad and corresponding keyword.

Linear: Distributes the credit for the conversion equally across all clicks on the path.

Time decay: Gives more credit to clicks that happened closer in time to the conversion. Credit is distributed using a 7-day half-life. In other words, a click 8 days before a conversion gets half as much credit as a click 1 day before a conversion.

Position-based: Gives 40% of credit to both the first- and last-clicked ads and corresponding keyword, with the remaining 20% spread out across the other clicks on the path.

Data-driven: Distributes credit for the conversion based on past data for this conversion action. (This is only available to accounts with enough data).

Why does your attribution model matter? Better information about how your customers engage with your ads will help you glean information about how each of the ads in your account contributes to the customer journey, instead of just the last step of it. This then allows you to invest more funds in ads that are actually impacting the decision making process.

While each of Google’s attribution models provide important information about which ads are driving conversions, we’d recommend exploring data-driven attribution, which distributes credit for the conversion (such as a purchase or a contact form submission) across all of the ads that were part of the sales journey.

Data-driven attribution is available to accounts with at least 15,000 clicks and a conversion action with at least 600 conversions within 30 days. (Note this means that some of your conversions may be eligible for data-driven attribution, while others may not be). Data-driven attribution assesses all of the clicks in your campaign, then hones in on the click paths of individuals who drove a conversion versus those who did not. When this full-journey attribution model is integrated with an automated bid strategy, Google can boost spend on those ads that were part of successful click pathways.

]]>https://tribalvision.com/giving-credit-credits-due-attribution-models-adwords/feed/0Google Data Studio Best Practiceshttps://tribalvision.com/google-data-studio-best-practices/
https://tribalvision.com/google-data-studio-best-practices/#respondTue, 06 Mar 2018 12:56:16 +0000http://tribalvision.createdby.pro/?p=7496You have been pushing out marketing initiatives that are yielding great results. How can you best synthesize the data for your client without overwhelming them? An easily digestible ...

]]>You have been pushing out marketing initiatives that are yielding great results. How can you best synthesize the data for your client without overwhelming them? An easily digestible and interactive reporting tool released back in 2016 is your answer, Google Data Studio. With the ability to compile data from various applications in an interactive manner, Google Data Studio should be one of your marketing tactics. Listed below are some best practices for anyone new to Google Data Studio, or in need of a refresher.

Best Practices

Create one report per client and duplicate that template every time you update the tracking. Initially creating a Google Data Studio Report can be time intensive, but once the frame work is there, less time will be needed in the next reporting update.

When pulling data from a source outside of Google, such as ExactTarget or LinkedIn, compile all data into one Google sheet. Google Data Studio makes it easy to connect data from many applications, such as Google AdWords, Google Sheets, Google Analytics, Big Query, and more.

Be sure to be in edit mode; view mode is interactive but no changes you make will be saved.

Once Google Analytics is set up, be sure to double check that the data Google Data Studio has populated is accurate. Since Google Data Studio is still in Beta, there can be glitches along the way.

Monthly reporting provides the client with measurable results that can help move along successful campaigns and reevaluate campaigns that are not delivering great results.

Be sure to share your report with all stakeholders! With great visualizations and interactive graphics, a Google Data Studio Report will impress anyone.

]]>https://tribalvision.com/google-data-studio-best-practices/feed/0Qualifying Leads Through Lead Scoringhttps://tribalvision.com/qualifying-leads-through-lead-scoring/
https://tribalvision.com/qualifying-leads-through-lead-scoring/#respondTue, 27 Feb 2018 12:53:52 +0000http://tribalvision.createdby.pro/?p=7494Companies come to TribalVision all of the time saying that they need more qualified leads. The purpose of lead scoring is to do just that. Lead scoring is ...

]]>Companies come to TribalVision all of the time saying that they need more qualified leads. The purpose of lead scoring is to do just that. Lead scoring is set up to assign a numeric value to both the actions an individual takes with any given email communication, and a person’s demographic information. The end goal is to bring the right type of people, who take the right type of action, to the top of the lead pile and bring them to the attention of the New Business team to follow up with. The end outcome results in the sales team spending their time working quality leads instead of having to hunt for them themselves.

Lead Scoring revolves around a few key goals:

Goal 1: Build on known demographic data to inform behavioral scores.

Some demographic information that can have lead scores attributed to them include:

Industry Type: ranking each industry in terms of revenue value or potential.

Company: developing a target list of companies and prioritizing behavior from contacts who work there.

Lead Source: outlining various sources and valuing those that generate the most qualified leads.

Job Title: establishing which positions have the authority to make or influence a buying decision.

Goal 2: Score predictive behavior that will lead to purchase

Not all actions are created equally, some actions to rank include:

Link Specificity: scoring different types of links at various levels allows marketers to differentiate the degree to which a customer is interested in purchasing.

Click Frequency: if a contact clicks to view information more than once, this indicates a higher degree of interest and should be scored as such.

Type of Email: different types of emails can be scored to varying degrees of qualification.

Landing Page Specificity and Conversion Forms: different pages on the website can serve different ranks as well as the actions a person takes on each page such as downloading a form or watching a video.

Goal 3: Distinguish insignificant or negative behavior

Negative behaviors should be taken into consideration as well; some include:

Frequency of Opens without Clicks: if a lead is opening e-mails but never visiting the website, this could mean that they are not fully interested in purchasing.

Undesirable Website Visits: while someone visiting the About Us page is not a negative action, scores should still be decreased to avoid inflation. A lead visiting the careers page is unlikely to be interested in purchasing.

Inactivity Periods: if a contact does not interact with a company for a certain amount of time, their score should decrease to show that they are not interested in purchasing.

Demographic Score Depreciation: Differentiators that determine the decision-making power of a lead should also decrease the score with a negative point value to indicate lower purchasing likelihood.

To calculate lead score, companies can designate a 0-100 scale that will accurately depict where leads are in the buying cycle. To ensure that business fit is incorporated with behavioral indicators, lead scoring programs can be split into two dimensions that will help designate if a prospect is worth pursuing by sales. Demographic information can determine the “Fit” score, while e-mail and web activity can determine the behavioral “Engagement” score. Together, these will add up to the full lead score that designates whether a contact is marketing qualified or sales ready.